I’m looking forward to seeing Matt Taibbi, a scathing critic of Wall Street, at The Commonwealth Club April 10 in San Francisco. He recently left Rolling Stone and joined Pierre Omidyar’s $250m media group First Look, which I persist in calling OMG!

Wed, Apr 9 2014 - 7:00pmJared Diamond, Professor of Geography, UCLA; Author, Guns, Germs, and Steel and The Third Chimpanzee for Young People

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Diamond examines the evolutionary history of humans and the unique traits and behaviors that distinguish us from other animals. Diamond also explains why our innate tendencies toward invention and violence have led us to a crucial tipping point. Hear what Diamond has to say about the future of our species.

Tarnoff's latest book focuses on Mark Twain's early years as a struggling writer in Civil War-era San Francisco and on the countercultural community he discovered there. It was a haven for weirdos, gamblers, crooks and draft dodgers, but later became a literary laboratory for new kinds of writing, eventually influencing several of the directions American literature went during the decades that followed.

Economist and New York Times best-selling author Jeremy Rifkin will be here to discuss his provocative new book, The Zero Marginal Cost Society, in which he describes how the emerging "Internet of Things" is transforming us into an era of nearly free goods and services and no longer subject to market forces. Rifkin, who is known globally for his work observing the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, society and the environment, theorizes that while capitalism will always be an intrinsic part of our economy, it will lose its position as the dominant economic paradigm later in the century.

New Republic Contributing Editor Morozov has been described as one of the “most prominent, most multiplatformed critic[s] of the utopian promises coming from Silicon Valley.” He will discuss changes in privacy, democracy and the future of information and technology policy.

Radack works primarily with whistleblowers – including those from the Defense Department, Department of Homeland Security, NSA and CIA – with special focus on torture, secret surveillance and political discrimination. She represented former NSA official and whistleblower Thomas Drake throughout the government's unsuccessful prosecution of him under the Espionage Act. She then represented CIA torture conduct whistleblower John Kiriakou, who is the sole CIA agent sent to jail in connection with the U.S. torture program, despite never having tortured anyone.

Archduke Karl von Habsburg, LLM, is truly a modern “Monuments Man.” As president of the Association of National Committees of the Blue Shield and a former member of the European Parliament for Austria, he has specialized in international humanitarian law and intangible cultural heritage protection. Archduke von Habsburg has most recently worked to save cultural artifacts and historical sites in many modern crisis-ravaged parts of Arica and the Middle East. He is a descendant of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in Sarajevo triggered World War I, 100 years ago this June. In 1961, the Archduke’s father, Otto von Habsburg, renounced all claims to the Austrian throne. Here’s a rare chance to meet a descendant of European Royalty, who is currently working to preserve the world’s most precious treasures.